#bully fic

Max stops at the token machine to dig out her wad of dollar bills. “I don’t even know if I want to play! I’m just…looking for something to get me out of the house.”

Lucas leans on the top of the machine to singsong at her. “There’s always a seat at the table.” He wiggles his eyebrows and she hates that she laughs.

“In Wheeler’s fart infested basement? I don’t think so.” She scoops the tokens out to hand them to Lucas, her own personal coin purse while she keeps her high score for the afternoon. “He doesn’t make El do it so why should I be forced to play?”

“He doesn’t force her and plus, they aren’t talking right now.”

“What?” She whips her head to look at him. “She didn’t tell me anything!”

Lucas gives her a side eye before walking away towards the Dig Dug machine and Max follows him close, hands pulling at his shoulders to get him to stop moving, and when he doesn’t, fingers dig into his side to try and tickle it out of him.

“Tell me! What happened!” If this was anyone else she might consider this bullying with the way she pulls at the hem of his shirt and shakes his whole body when all he gives her for an answer is a laugh at her pretend annoyance. It isn’t until she manages to get a leg up off the stool and onto his back that he threatens to drop her tokens.

“If I get off you, you’ll tell me?” She asks him directly in his ear so he winces away with a chuckle.

“If you get off me I won’t drop your coins.”

Lucas hands her two tokens when she puts both feet on the ground and nods his head at the arcade. A silent standoff for a moment before Max gives up with a heavy sigh, sitting down when the tune jingles behind the screen.

“Okay, this morning Mike called to hang out and I told him we were gonna be busy but he could tag along if he wanted to.”

“Why do you do that?”

Lucas ignores her. “But he said he didn’t want to be around you because you were probably gonna make fun of him all day and if he wanted that, he’d just go over to El’s.”

“So they had another fight?”

“I guess? It sounds like she was teasing him about being in the basement all summer with his Nintendo and he blew up.”

Max frowns at the screen. “Did he say that? I don’t think I’ve ever heard him own up to a damn thing.”

“Surprisingly, yeah. He said that Hopper came in and told him to get the hell out if he was gonna yell like that.”

“He got yelled at by dad? No thank you.” She shakes her head a little to stop the memory of last night from resurfacing and of course Lucas catches it. Try as she might to keep her family stuff firmly behind the front door of their home, it’s been sneaking out lately and waving at anyone who pays attention, Lucas in particular.

“You okay?”

Her eyebrows knit before she can stop it but she’s focused on the game, fingers tapping on the thick buttons. If she doesn’t respond then maybe Lucas will shrug it off and keep telling her about Mike having a tantrum. Maybe he’ll tell her about the Fighter he built for her and try for the hundredth time this summer to get her to play the dumb dice game. Or maybe he’ll double down and bring up her brother’s black eye.

“I saw Billy peeling out earlier.”

There it is, she thinks to herself and holds back the eye roll. “So did half the neighbors. He likes the attention.”

“He stopped long enough to flip me the bird.” He laughs like it’s normal.

“Yeah?” The game means nothing now. Her fingers slap at the cabinet and Lucas just keeps looking at her with pity. “Well don’t feel bad for him, he should know when to shut up.” She acknowledges it but won’t name it, especially when she was there for its christening. Voices that raised over her headphones, the splintering of a mistreated door being kicked in for the twentieth time and a loud smack of knuckles before it’d gone silent. “He pushes Neil for fun.”

Lucas stares at her like everyone else has that’s ever seen her stepdad go off on his kid.

Max feels the lump crawling fast up her throat so she swallows to keep it tucked below her ribs where it can settle until later. “Lucas…” His name comes out soft on the end of a heavy sigh. She doesn’t really have anything to say, nothing she wants to admit to him right now, at least not while the sun is shining.

To his credit he looks uncomfortable in the face of her minor slip but it’s gone as soon as she notices it. “You’d tell me, wouldn’t you?”

Talking without talking. It’s like their special ability, their mutant powers, not quite mind reading but close. He asks her the obvious question without using the words so she isn’t embarrassed. So others don’t overhear.

She really thinks about it. Tries to remember a time that Neil had ever directed that temper at her and comes up with a blank. It’s always anger by association, always behind Billy when the blame rolls in no matter how loud she’d get about her part in the issue. That had only happened once and her mother had swiftly pulled her out of the room and into the car and they’d gone to the mall for most of the day. Max thinks about all the times she’s come home to a new bruise on Billy or another broken dish in the trash. She thinks about how Lucas has never seen the inside of her house but she’s been all over his, every nook and even through the attic, even through Mrs. Sinclair’s garden.

“Yeah.”

The game jingles at her in a mocking defeat but the wasted tokens don’t matter. She stares at Lucas who does his best to wait for her, his hands shoved far into his shorts pockets until she makes the slightest move for him and he wraps her in a hug, tight and lighting quick. Thankfully it’s lunch time and thankfully the attendant today has wandered off and thankfully it’s just them in the arcade with all its trills and beeps. Cabinet screens flash around them and all that matters is the hug and the quietly whispered “I’m sorry” that Lucas presses into the top of her head.

Lucas agreed to meet Max at the field ten minuets after her drop off time to avoid anymore general jackassery from Billy, but when he’d folded himself out of the backseat of Steve’s car he’d had to brace himself. The Camaro sat idling on the far side of the field with its owner leaning on the hood, a brunette vying for his attention next to him, but no redhead in sight.

“You okay?” Steve asks while pointedly staring at Billy across the field.

“Yeah I’m…he won’t do anything here.”

There’s the trill of whistles and Robin is shooting out of the passenger seat, cursing and slamming her foot into a cleat. “I told you we were gonna be late!” She screeches at Steve as she barrels down the small slope with her bag swinging wildly from her shoulder. She waves both hands at the coach and yells something about traffic and that’s when Dustin gets out of the car finally, his finger pointed to the middle of the group of girls.

“There she is.”

Red hair shines bright in the early morning sun and Lucas can’t help the smile that grows wide. Beside him Dustin nudges him, says something about googly eyes and makes his horrible whip sound but Lucas tunes him out. Max is tucked into herself until Robin pushes her way over and a smile appears, a laugh too when she points up to the three of them on the hill and she grabs Max’s hand to flop it at them in a crude wave.

Dustin waves back with the folded up signup sheet and he elbows Lucas again. “See man? Nothing to worry about.”

“I know. I just—“

“Worry?”

“Shut up.” It’s good natured. Dustin laughs and asks him again if he filled out the papers, if he brought his character sheet and it isn’t until Steve whistles at them and points to the school parking lot that Dustin finally cuts it out. A van has rumbled in and before it can park, a shaggy head pops out and looks around before throwing his hands up and yelling.

“Henderson!”

Dustin takes off, calling Lucas with him over his shoulder to follow, but Lucas hangs back for a minute. He watches Max whispering with Robin, can see her easing up. The smile hasn’t left her face, just faded into the conversation as she nods her head along to something said to her. Beside him Steve sighs when the horn on the van goes off three times in quick succession and Lucas looks over to see Dustin giving him a pointed, annoyed look.

“I’d go over there before he pisses Munson off.” Steve seems to be watching Lucas struggle to leave and he taps him on the arm to assure him. “I’ll keep an eye on her, okay? I promise I won’t let anything happen.”

The overpowering smell of wet dirt where you can’t really figure out if you kind of like it or absolutely hate it. The uncomfortable feeling of your school uniform being all tight and stuck to you, itching here and there because of the humidity after a long week of constant heavy rain. The puddles that make sure to get your shoes soaked and grimy, seeping a little dampness into your socks somehow for the rest of the day and not forgetting to leave muddy, watery footprints and squeaky noises everywhere you go in the building. The urge to just go home, shower, and change into comfy clothes. Yeah, you were back alright.

It had been a few years since you were not only last seen in this country and this all too familiar area, but also this lame ass school. To your surprise, the school had unfortunately not crumbled to the ground yet. Although you really wish it had- especially at this very moment. You thought maybe if you manifest it and walk slow enough, it might just collapse. But of course, it didn’t.

All you could hear right now were chants, yells, and whining coming from every direction. Near and far, students were causing usual havoc while waiting for the bell to command them to class. Years ago it would have made you sick to the stomach with anxiety, but right now you were just so fed up about having to be here again you couldn’t care less about anyone around you. Who knew it was this easy to ignore when you’re caught up in your own head. And in all honesty, it was no shocker to probably absolutely anybody, but especially not to you, to see that the students of this school were still something like hell spawn. How nice it is to see the students still terrorising the teachers to the point they cry and leave even after all this time.

Home sweet home.

You were quite aware of the possibility that you may draw a bit of attention today from people that might actually remember you, because in all actuality you had shown up out of nowhere completely unannounced after your sudden disappearance a while ago. But that’s if anyone really cared to take any note of your existence; it’s not like they ever had done before.

Fortunately, you were a little older now, used to this whole high school shit, and you could actually tolerate the majority of kids here. You had become skilled at just ignoring things until they went away. Besides, it’s not like you’d be here for that long.

Just as long as that damned Nishimura kid wasn’t around- you’d be okay.

Hold on, let’s rewind a little.

A few years ago, you were told for the first time in your life that you’d not only be moving house, but moving to an entirely different country away from the one you had spent your whole childhood in growing up. You were only about a year into your high school life when the news dropped.

You knew your fathers job required your family to move around often- but you had gotten lucky and had ended up never actually having to move around until now. But you weren’t sad for long. In fact, you were delighted to get away from this place. Why? Because recently, it was making you so miserable.

As soon as high school began, your whole life changed. You had faced some major teasing from time to time- always being kind of a loner, but for most of your first year of high school, you were bullied hard. You were teased and treated like some stupid baby, your things got taken and thrown, sometimes you’d be “ding-dong-ditched”, and for months the insults and comments never ended. It got to the point you had begged and pleaded for your parents to transfer you to a different school. Though now they didn’t need to, because you were moving across the globe.

You soon started your new life in a new school, new country, with new people- and it was going amazing. Suddenly, you had a ton of friends, and people actually wanted to be around you. It was such a change from what you had faced in your home country, and it felt like luxury. But you couldn’t make too many friends or really get too close to anyone, because ever since you moved the first time, it seemed like suddenly your family just had to keep moving every year or so.

You looked at the bright side though, you travelled often, got cool life experiences, and you had the rare opportunity to constantly start fresh again at each new school you started. As long as you weren’t going to that fucking school back home it was fine. You’d most likely never have to go there again, right?

But that didn’t work out so well.

Because just a few weeks ago, you were told you were temporarily moving back home, and that while you were there you’d have to attend that cursed old school again. For a while, you were so angry about it, and to be honest- you still are today. But you were relieved because you had been recently informed that the usual group of kids that used to bully you were all gone now. All except two. One of them being Nishimura Niki, famous for making your life hell since middle school.

Niki wasn’t the worst of the batch, but he was definitely the most irritating. He was always the one that would tease you like a little kid, always taking your stuff and calling you names just to get a reaction out of you. You never understood what you had ever done to him- or anybody for that matter, but you never tried to find out either. You had just let it happen. The others had always just been mean because they bullied everyone ‘below’ them, but Niki only seemed to just pick on you. God knows why he chose to target you, but it was damn tiring.

So now here you are.

Standing outside the school you thought you’d never have to see again.

Waiting to begin your, as you would call it, “jail sentence”.

The bell finally echoed throughout the rusty buildings and everyone swarmed toward the doors. Some heading straight to class, and others finding a great hiding spot to skip classes for the day. You kept your head down, not risking drawing any attention until you got into the classroom.

The teacher greeted you warmly. It was a new teacher, one that must have begun working here during the time you were living your best life elsewhere. You took a seat close to the window and finally had the guts to lift your head and look around.

You let out a heavy sigh of relief as you scanned around with your eyes and realised nobody in here knew who you were. You sat up and dropped your shoulders from their incredibly tense position and smiled to yourself. Maybe things really had changed and you could pretend like you’d never been here before. You were good at starting fresh, since you’d been doing it for the past couple years now.

The class shortly began and you feel yourself slowly relaxing as you realise you’ve already read the book they’re discussing today, so you already know all the answers to any possible questions that would be asked of you. Thankfully, the classroom is peaceful and light. The other students aren’t causing much trouble since it’s the first class of the day and everyone’s half asleep still. That’s until abruptly, the classroom door swings open and someone tumbles in loudly. A young boy, who kind of looks famili-

“Mr. Nishimura. You’re late, as always.”

Your heart drops to your ass at the sound of his name and you swiftly duck down, pretending like you’re taking something out of the bag beside your chair. Peeking slightly at him, but not enough for him to be able to see your face.

“Got stuck in traffic” he shrugs.

“You’re not old enough to drive,” the teacher's tone was clearly plastered in annoyance, not believing any words that could possibly come from his sarcastic mouth.

“My parents drove me, duh.”

“Everyone knows you live just across the road from the school, Niki,” the teacher sighs and the class giggles quietly amongst themselves, “I will let it slide that you’re late again as it's not quite been five minutes yet, but don’t you lie to me again young man.”

Niki just shrugged it off like before and began to walk toward his assigned seat near the front of the classroom, thankfully way out of the vision field of where you were currently sitting. Hesitantly, you eventually made your way back up to sitting normally again, but you could definitely say goodbye to your little relaxation sesh. This ‘stress free’ class suddenly just became the hardest one of your entire day and a close cause of fatal cardiac arrest.

Why the actual hell was HE here? It was as if it was a sick joke. It just had to be the class you were in. Even though it was technically his class before yours, the coincidence was uncanny. You needed to switch out fast. A visit to the school counsellors office certainly wasn’t on your agenda today, but now it was crucial. There was no way you could spend another day in this classroom; barely another minute.

You spent the rest of the entire class dodging whenever Niki would turn slightly or talk to someone behind him. Somehow, you had made it to the end of the class without him noticing you there. Everyone got up as the bell chimed and rushed toward the classroom exit, but you hovered behind just a few seconds to make sure you were way behind Niki. And you nearly made it, but just before you could leave you heard your teacher call out to you.

“Y/n! You almost forgot these papers.”

You felt like slamming your head into a wall. So much for avoiding any attention. You made your way back toward the teacher and took the papers, looking behind you a few times to see if Niki had heard it, but he was already out of sight. You’d gotten away with it on a call way too close for comfort.

“Make sure they get signed by the end of the week~!” the teacher reminded you cheerfully.

“Will do, thanks,” you nodded and headed out.

You took a few steps forward away from the classroom when Nishimura Niki swung himself in front of you. He must have heard your name, and even worse, he had waited for you.

“Is that really you? y/n?”

For a moment you panicked, feeling your ears heat up and eyes widen with fear. But then you collected yourself. There was no way you would let this little bastard get in your way again. You decided just to brush him off by going around him and keep on walking. Though he really wasn’t so little anymore. In fact, he was really really fucking tall and he looked more intimidating than he had ever been.

“It is, isn't it? I can’t believe it y/n. It was a bit rude that I didn’t even get a jump scare warning, but wow, you really still exist?” his words trailed behind you, following you.

“No, obviously I don’t,” you muttered, words dripping with sarcasm. You weren’t supposed to be responding, but you honestly couldn’t resist it.

“You still think you’re smart huh? I’d say that’s pretty dumb of you y/n” he scoffed.

“Sounds like you’re projecting,” you replied back.

Niki was quiet for just a second. You had completely changed since the last time he had remembered you. You still looked the same in his eyes, but your personality had taken a full turn. Usually, you’d be yelling at him to go away by now, or hiding from him. He still remembered the time he had snatched your cute little wrist watch from you for just a few minutes and the way your lips trembled as you tried to hold back your tears pleading that he give it back. He had felt bad for a minute back then, but only then. And you’d never know about it. But where did this new confidence come from? And why was it kind of attractive? Niki shook his head, racing in front of you again to face you.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

You sighed and involuntarily rolled your eyes slightly, not surprised he was doing something like this. It was very Niki coded to stand in front of someone’s way annoying them when he wasn’t being paid enough attention. One thing you now realised was how stupid it was that you used to react so much to him and his lame shots at you. Because right now, this was pathetic and more than just a little cringe.

“You know American high school movies aren't great tutorials on how to be a bully right? Unless of course you’re intentionally trying to be a walking ick, otherwise you’re doing a great job.”

“What does that even mean?”

You giggled at your own joke and shrugged at him, taking a sharp turn closer towards your next class. As expected, he continued to get in your way.

“Stop with that annoying fucking giggle. And I’m not finished talking to you yet,” he snapped.

“It’s a good thing I wasn’t listening anyway then. Move Nishimura.”

“You still remember my name?” Niki’s eyes widened, stuttering for a split second and his stance softening up a little.

“Nope.”

“But you just said it-”

You shrugged again and entered your classroom, taking a deep breath of relief as the door shut behind you- leaving Niki out in the hallway confused as ever. Maybe it wasn’t going to be that bad after all, but you knew he wouldn’t stop there.

“You wanna play this again, then we can play Nishimura,” you thought to yourself.

—-

Niki couldn’t stop thinking about what had just happened, and how you had even ended up back here years later out of nowhere. Why didn’t he know? It was bad enough that you had up and left without a goodbye (not that he deserved one), but to show up again? And to just keep brushing him off like he wasn’t even there? It majorly pissed him off.

‘Move Nishimura.’

Besides his teachers, you had been (and supposedly still were) the only one to ever call him that. He had never understood why you barely ever just called him by his first name. You always called him Nishimura when he had pissed you off, and it only made him want to annoy you more just to hear it again. It sounded so different from you and it made you stand out from everyone else he knew; he hated it. God he hated it so much.

Niki replayed the image in his head of you ducking and hiding from him earlier when he had first got to class. It took everything in him not to act like he’d just seen a ghost when he recognized your presence. Yes, he had seen it all. You in fact had not gotten away with it after all. Seriously you were so stupid for thinking that was going to work, anybody would have noticed a whole new ass student in the classroom. He had just played along with it because it was funny to watch you desperately try to avoid his gaze and almost get whiplash pretending you were looking elsewhere. Did he really have that sort of effect on you? Perhaps you weren’t as composed as you tried to act in front of him anyway, it made him chuckle lightly thinking about it.

“Whatcha thinkin ‘bout?” The girl beside Niki interrupted his thoughts. It was one of his ‘friends’, who secretly Niki didn’t like at all but stuck around her to stay on her good side. She was another one of y/n’s notorious bullies. The other one out of the two still attending this school, and possibly the worst one. She scared everyone, including Niki sometimes. She basically ruled the whole school somehow.

“Your mother,” Niki grumbled at her, earning a hard shove.

“Whatever man, stop dozing off. I need someone to talk to. I'm bored as hell,” the infamous companion complained.

—-

You were right about Niki not stopping there, but fucking hell he was giving it his everything.

It was sort of admirable that he was dedicating that much effort and time to you, if it wasn’t for the fact he just wanted to annoy the shit out of you and attempt to ruin your day.

After the boy had found out you were back, he didn’t waste a second teasing you. He had stolen your phone a few times, turned your backpack inside out when you left it unattended, mocked your hair a few times for it being in bunches, copied your homework, and constantly hovered around and nagged you as if nobody else was allowed around you. Oh and god forbid that you ignored him, because then he’d do anything he could to get you to look at him or speak up, even if he actually ended up making a fool of himself instead of you in the end.

Really, nothing had changed about him. Well at least not his personality. He was definitely way taller now and his face had matured a lot, which was ironic for how immature he still was. Admittedly, he had glowed up, but one little haircut and he’d have nothing for sure. You couldn’t inflate his ego now, because then he truly would be insufferable.

A week went by and you were actually completely drained and on your last little bit of dying tolerance. Thank god you only had one class together each day, because you got to escape the torment while class was on going for the rest of the day disregarding the morning and the walking periods in between each one.

Niki must have gotten held behind somewhere or something this afternoon, because he had not appeared for the past couple of passing periods like he had been consistently. Somehow it actually felt kind of odd, but you savoured this moment while you still could. Unless he had truly given up on you, finally.

But you should have known that was too much of a good thing for you here.

As you were making your way out of your last class of the day and finally ready to head home, you heard a voice you wish you’d never even recognized. It made you freeze in your spot.

“Well look who it is! Y/n, isn’t it a pleasure to see your face again?”

“Lila.”

The one girl who had the entire school practically wrapped around her little finger. The one who had traumatised you the most. Sure you could act nonchalant in front of Niki, but Lila was violent, and in this situation it would have been such a relief to be picked on by Niki instead. When you were told that only two of “the usual” remained at this school, you had never even thought that Lila may have still been here. You assumed you would’ve been informed if she was. How had you gone a whole week without knowing she was here?

“Why didn’t you come and say hello? Didn’t you miss me?” She snarked, getting in your face. People began to glance over. You tried to ignore it and walk away, but Lila yanked a part of your hair and pulled you closer so she could threaten you in a whisper.

“What gave you the stupid stupid fucking nerve to come back?”

“Get off of me you obsessed bitch” you spat.

Niki came running up, out of breath and stopping a distance behind Lila watching with wide eyes at what was happening. He had been running across half the school campus to catch up with you before you went home, but not like this.

Lila let go of your hair but stomped hard on your foot and kept her foot there with a significant amount of pressure, causing a small whine of pain to escape you. She looked behind her, noticing Niki and lifted her foot from you but held onto your sleeve.

“Did you know she was here?” Lila questioned him.

Niki said nothing. You shouldn’t have expected him to, but a small part of you wished he would have done at least something, anything at all.

“Ahh, you must be surprised as well, right? She showed up without a word, can you believe that? How unfair,” Lila dragged on with a sigh.

You looked at Niki for a moment. He just stared at you with an uncomfortable expression. Clearly not wanting to be a part of what was happening right now.

Honestly, he felt hopeless. Even he didn’t agree with this. He had tried to avoid the possibility of Lila coming across you soon, always leading Lila away from your usual route this week, but obviously he was way too late today. He felt paralyzed in horror of it unravelling right in front of his eyes and seeing tears well up in your own eyes that you kept trying to hold back. It hurt him.

“At least now we can all hang out again like we used to, right Niki?” Lila flashed a painfully obvious fake smile. By “hang out” she meant physically terrorising you everyday for showing your face or even breathing in the same place as her, and everyone knew it. This school had a sick case of bystander effect though, so you couldn’t expect any help from anyone except yourself.

You shook her off of you aggressively and walked away with a fast angry pace, too many pairs of eyes watching you closely. You tried incredibly hard to stay collected but this whole moment had brought up a bit too much of the past for you and it hurt, badly. You were so embarrassed, and now your one shot of giving this shitty cursed school one more fucking chance was over.

Lila raised her eyebrows with a smug grin, acting as if she was surprised you had stormed off like that. Suddenly, Niki was beside her, grabbing her shoulder real tight, almost digging his fingernails into her.

“Jesus, what’s with the damn grip asshole?” She complained.

“You’re crossing a line that isn’t yours.”

“What? Don’t act like you don’t do the same shit,” Lila turned to Niki in which she was met with a heavy glare.

“Nobody picks on her unless it’s me,” he looked Lila up and down, “you nasty whore,” Niki added before rushing after you, calling out to you.

“Y/N hold up!” He yelled breathlessly. He did not expect to be doing this much running today. Why was the school this big by the way?

As he got closer, you dropped your bag to the ground rather dramatically and turned to face him with the meanest look you had ever produced in your life. It made him take a few steps back.

You let out an angry yell, taking it all out on him, “you know what Nishimura, let’s just fucking fight.”

Niki bit down hard on his bottom lip to stop himself from smiling a little. He really could not help it. The way you looked right now with your fragile soft fists up at him, the stupid sound of his last name coming from your mouth. It was like a test from the universe to not crack in front of you.

“Y/n…” he began softly.

People started crowding around you two now, drawing a lot of attention. They suddenly began to chant “fight” over and over, encouraging it. Niki looked around. So quickly, so many people were gathered waiting for it. He looked back at you with darting eyes and let out a sigh.

Then he approached you closely, in which you flinched and closed your eyes- anticipating it. Hell, you didn’t know how to fight physically. You had just acted impulsively and started something you definitely could not finish.

But Niki just grabbed your wrist softly. You were confused and started struggling as you realised he was grabbing you instead of fighting, “what the fuck?” you exclaimed as you looked at him, not understanding.

He ignored you and tightened his grip carefully and dragged you out of that ring of people who soon became disappointed at the absence of a real fight until eventually you two were isolated away from all the chaos.

It was awkward as you both sat engulfed in suffocating silence. Niki was simply waiting for you to calm down, whereas you were trying to figure out and just process what had just happened.

“Hey,” Niki broke the silence, finally.

You didn’t respond, but looked at him to show that you were listening. This was so out of character for him. You never knew you were capable of feeling this much confusion before now. This school really was cursed.

“You know I’d never really hurt you right?”

Your eyes scanned him with confusion, and your ears became hot with embarrassment. Why did you suddenly feel so shy now?

Niki didn’t wait for a response. He had already started, so he decided to just spill whatever was on his mind before he started regretting it. If it wasn’t now, it’d probably be never. He sighed and got closer to you, kneeling in front of you and looking up at you ever so softly.

You’d never seen this side of him, this was completely new and you weren’t sure how to feel about it yet alone how to react to it.

“I know this is really sudden, but the truth is y/n I’ve never hated you. I just hated the way you would make me feel. I hated the way I admired you so much. I hate how perfect you are. Yet, all I wanted to do is be around you. I know there were better ways to act, and I’ve probably done a lot of damage to you, but I was so lost and confused on how to deal with everything. I was so scared of my own feelings I ended up avoiding them by pushing you away while wanting to stay close to you the only way I knew how to. I can only hope for your forgiveness,”

“Niki,” you began, but he cut you off. If he stopped to think about it or let what he was saying sink in, he would probably run away.

“When you suddenly stopped turning up to school a few years ago, I found out that you had moved away and left; My heart shattered. I think that was when I realised how much I really just wanted your attention on me rather than anybody else. Things went too far back then, and I was sure you’d never come back. I tried to forget it, move on like I never cared anyway, but I really missed just seeing your face everyday y/n,” tears began to fall from his eyes and his voice became desperate.

Unintentionally, butterflies erupted in your stomach, suddenly making you extremely nauseous. His words were really genuine and so unexpected. You never thought you’d hear a confession like this from anyone, let alone Nishimura Niki. The kid you thought wanted you to just vanish. You started to feel bad that you had never even known about this hurt you caused him. It wasn’t your fault, but somehow you felt responsible and sorry.

“I never got over it. Every fucking day I felt nothing but guilt. It’s only been a week since you came back, and I think that’s why I’m doing this now. At first I tried to pretend that my old feelings weren’t coming back up, but if I’m being honest with you, I never stopped liking you. Nobody does it like you. I know it sounds pathetic but I really can’t lose you again like that. Fuck, I'm terrified that you'll be around one day and then gone the next just like before. Completely out of my life. I’m done playing my childish games, because this is how I feel. I can’t explain to you the way I felt when I saw you again. I panicked and resorted to what I was just used to since we were in middle school, but god I got so scared when you started to brush me off.”

You felt a dark pink blush flush over your cheeks in which you couldn’t even try hiding as you realised that Nishimura Niki had just admitted that he not only did, but still likes you. And since middle school? The more you saw this vulnerable side of him, the more your eyes opened to just how unique he truly was. But you also felt like hitting him for never opening up to you until now.

“Back there, seeing the hurt you tried to keep back in your eyes, I felt this urging wave of protection splash over me. I froze because the feeling was overwhelming and sudden. I wanted to hold you, to stop the pain I took part in causing, but I knew that was so much easier said than done. I’m afraid of not being able to be someone you need around, but now I want to do my best to prove myself and be that type of person for you.”

Niki cried harder and harder, reaching out to hold your hand as he pleaded. You gently began to run your palm over his head in a way of consoling him. He hunched over your lap, crying out everything. You let him, and you both stayed like that, very still for a while. As he calmed down to a level where you could actually understand what he was saying without choking on his words, he looked up at you again and finally said,

“It feels like the universe has just thrown me another chance. A chance to make it up to you and show you that I can be serious. Please y/n, let me show you a side of me that nobody has seen. It’s all for you, beautiful, only you.”

END.

please note: this is simply a fan written fiction for entertainment purposes only and is not associated with the real enhypen members at all nor should it ever be related to the real version of them. this story is not intended to hate or make anyone look bad. thank you.

            Niall used to walk down the halls with his shoulders squared and his chin tilted up, but that was before.

Before he came out. Or was forced out, really.

            Before he came out he used to run with all the popular kids, he was vying for the number one slot. The only one who was ahead of him was his best friend, and even though there was some friendly competition between the two he didn’t really mind it. He was still invited to all the parties and he still was a part of all the gossip.

            After he came out things turned ugly, the popular kids that admired and wanted to be like him were disgusted by him. He stopped getting invitations to parties; he was still a part of all the gossip but for a different reason. And worst of, all his best friend in the whole world turned on him.

            So the only thing poor Niall could do was walk with his frame scrunched around his stack of books, his eyes trained on the ground, in hopes of not being noticed. Because when he got noticed that’s when things got bad.

              “Faggot,” the larger boy, Joshua, sneered as he shoved the dainty blonde, Niall, forcefully into the row of hard metal lockers, just barely missing the open one that Niall was standing in front of. Niall grabbed for the door of his locker to keep himself upright, but he staggered and only managed to keep from falling all the way.

            That sort of treatment was nothing new to Niall as of recent. He had been confident and very popular but that was before he was invited to a bash to end all bashes and drunkenly revealed the truth about his sexuality. It wasn’t like he could keep it a secret seeing as how it happened in front of just about everyone he knew. Since then incidents such as this one occurred almost daily.

            Niall bit his lip, to keep from shooting off his gob and making it worse, turned back to his locker to continue retrieving his school supplies when he thought he saw a flash of dark skin and even darker clothing. But he just shook his head free of the image and reminded himself that chances are if the new kid had really saw what was going on he would have aided Joshua and his posse in further torment. He had only been in attendance at Eastridge Academy for about a week, but he had already made it perfectly clear he was the definition of a bad boy.

            “What are you doing little Leprechaun faggot? Don’t you know it’s rude to ignore people when they are speaking to you?” Joshua queried giving Niall another, smaller shove, one that Niall was able to keep his balance for and Joshua’s little posse sniggered at their leader’s actions, making Niall cringe. They were trust fund babies and were very well educated, but obviously still very stupid and very immature.

            Hearing Joshua laughing at his own cruel slurs and being shoved into the lockers for the second time caused Niall’s cheeks to flush ruby red and his pulse to leap. And suddenly he didn’t care what happened at the party, he just was not in the mood to be getting any more lagging, so he whirled around, laser-beam blue eyes flashing to an icy steel blue, and he began speaking without really thinking first. “Don’t you know it is rude to belittle people solely on their sexual preference?” He paused, his whole body shaking slightly, and turned to the others. “And don’t you know how hanging on his every word just shows how little individuality and intelligence you really have?”

            Joshua’s posse, Lucas, Bradley, and Dylan, all huffed, puffed out their chests, and advanced at unison, to illustrate Niall’s theory that they all shared a brain. Joshua shoved a hand backward to call them off, making it apparent to Niall that he was the only one of them aware of their surroundings. 

            “Listen here you mouthy little mick, no one talks to me or my mates that way. Be prepared after the final bell for a game of Smear The Queer,” Joshua threatened and then made a point of pushing past the quaking blonde, even though it was clearly out of his way. His plonker for brains friends followed suit.

            As soon as they were out of sight, Niall’s legs gave out, and he collapsed, books and all, to the cool hard ground. And on his way down he noticed a dark flash zoom through his line of vision. This time he could not scold his mind for his eyes playing tricks on him, because the new kid most certainly had been ghosting around. That only gave him something else to worry about for a while, but it got pushed to the back of his mind as soon as he got into class because Niall’s stomach slammed into his trainers, like a runaway elevator car every time the school bell rang to signal a class end. It meant he was one hour closer to becoming graffiti on the walkway. 

            When the last bell finally rang Niall nearly swallowed his tongue. He lingered around the halls for as long as possible, even stopping by his locker for a while even though it wasn’t really necessary. Realizing that he had nothing left to do to stall Niall wandered outside using the back exit. He figured that they would have gone home by then or at least would be waiting for him at the front doors. He thought he was home free until he heard snickering, snickering that unmistakably belonged to one person.

 In a flash Niall was surrounded by Joshua and the rest of the gang. He didn’t even have a chance to utter a single word before he was knocked onto his bum. “We warned you, you little Mick! Now you’re getting it double for making us wait so long!” Joshua sneered as he began kicking Niall anywhere that was unprotected.

            Niall tried his best to block the kicks coming his way, but Joshua was captain of the footy team and was very skilled, so it was very hard for Niall to block anything but his face . He was kicking away like he did during a match and it was all Niall could to keep from giving up, curling in a ball, and crying. But he decided against it when Joshua got in a cheap shot that most certainly brought him up and onto all fours, in an attempt to keep from barfing.

            “What is this? Is the little Leprechaun going to fight back?” Lucas guffawed sending an equally strong hard kick right to Niall’s rib cage.

Joshua stepped back, with his arms crossed, amusement clear on his face. “What do you not want to play Smear The Queer, little Mick?”

            Niall shook his head ‘no’ and somehow managed to get up to his feet even though he felt as if he had been ran over by a double decker bus. He tucked his arm across his aching torso and tried to get away, but his legs weren’t up to usual performance and he didn’t make it very far. Prompting Joshua to shout for his cronies to bring Niall back to him and hold him upright and still this time. Bradley and Lucas each grabbed an arm and Dylan grabbed Niall by the back of the head and jerked towards him allowing Joshua full access to every part of Niall’s already bruising body.  Niall looked at Joshua with half lidded eyes scared and uncertain of what was yet to come.

            “That’s too bad,” the leader all but growled before throwing punches at Niall. He littered the Irish lad’s body with licks and kicks, with seemingly no rhyme or reason. Niall tried to break free from the other boy’s grasp, but it only made them grip him tighter, and it made Joshua angrier. He had caught Niall in the face a couple times, but when he saw his prey was trying to get away he decided to sock him good, which incidentally broke Niall’s nose.

            Niall resolved to not make a sound because he didn’t want to seem weak, but he couldn’t control the tears that streaked down his face, mixed with the blood pulsing from his nose, and dripped onto his shirt. Seeing Niall’s tears and bleeding nose only fueled Joshua’s crazy.

            Niall bit through his bottom lip trying to keep quite as Joshua pounded his fists into the flittered boy’s flesh. It was then, when Niall could taste his own blood, that he accepted defeat and stopped any form of fight he was putting up. He knew that no amount of bargaining was going to save him. He was going to be beaten within an inch of his life and he had no way out of it.

            And then out of nowhere Niall was falling to the ground, happy to be free of his captors grip. He drew from deep within himself to roll his head up just enough so that he could see what was happening.

            The dark mysterious transfer student had come to Niall’s rescue. He was single handedly getting the best of not one but four lads. By the looks of it the dark skinned boy had broken Joshua’s hand and possibly his jaw, dislocated Bradley’s ribs, and severally bruised Lucas and Dylan. But Niall couldn’t know for sure, he wasn’t a doctor.

            Finally, all the trust fund babies ran for the heels, leaving the new kid and Niall alone. Niall just laid there unsure what to do and taking inventory of his injuries. His nose seemed to be in the worst shape, but he couldn’t exert enough energy to cup it with his hands.

            The tan lad bent down in front Niall raking him over with black unreadable eyes. It was impossible for Niall to know what he was thinking, his face gave nothing away. For all he knew the bloke could have wanted to finish Niall off for himself.

            “Get up. I’m going to take you to my mate’s house the next block over to get you cleaned up and checked out. He’s going to uni to be a doctor or something, and he can treat you,” the dark skinned lad commanded.

            Niall blinked a couple times and tried to follow the blunt orders he was given. “I, uh, don’t think I can on my own,” Niall murmured, feeling so nervous his accent made his speech almost unintelligible, after trying to get his feet.

            The lad just grunted and only semi-gently hoisted Niall up. He gave Niall a hard once over again and spoke. “Can you make it on your own,” he paused and waited for Niall to respond. When he shook his head no, the new student rolled his eyes and made it so that he was supporting Niall’s weight, once he was satisfied he started walking and talking again, “You know if you didn’t act like a bloody p****, they wouldn’t be so hard on you. I saw it in your eyes, you could very well take that d**** head off, but you refrained and used your words instead.”

            Niall cringed because of how insightful a complete stranger had been. “It’s complicated. I shouldn’t even have spoken to Joshua that way, but him and his gaggle of idgits kept pushing my buttons.”

            The lad snorted and shook his head in disapproval. “What’s so complicated about it? Smash his gob when he shoots it off like that and it won’t happen again.”

            Hearing his savior’s blatant disregard for the situation at hand troubled Niall. He frowned and wondered if telling him the whole story would make the transfer student understand. “Believe it or not before you got here I was one of the most popular lads in the school, only second to Joshua-“

            “Bullf*****s****, there’s no bloody way!” he interrupted, Niall.

            Niall attempted to shrug and ended up wincing in pain instead. “Anyhow, I was invited to Dylan, the red haired one’s, party and I got three sheets to the wind and stuck my bloody tongue down Joshua’s throat right in front of everyone.”

            “So you really are a bum bandit? I guess I really can’t say much, I enjoy a good bugger every now and again.”

            “I would’ve taken you for straight. But, anyhow, the worst part is Joshua and I had been best friends and was sort of courting in secret and that, well, that outed us. Only he didn’t want to be out yet, so he turned it around on me, like I was so hammered I forced myself on him instead of blurred the lines of acceptable social behavior. He still got a good bit of slagging from it until he started belting the s**** out of me on the daily basis.”

            “F****** h***,” the lad breathed. Niall could feel his muscles go rigid against him. “Listen, le-I mean Niall, I don’t reckon I realized it was like that. Just because things are so complicated like that doesn’t mean he can be an a**, though you don’t deserve that.”

            Niall winced and slowed his pace, he was becoming more sore by the minute and he wasn’t sure how much farther it was until they arrived at their destination. “It’s okay, I still don’t know your name,” Niall admitted. “I didn’t exactly broadcast it.”

            “Zayn, without the ‘e’, Malik. I guess I just got an idea about you in my head and didn’t think you would be any different. I’m glad I was wrong, it makes me like you a lot more now. For more than just your face, that is,” Zayn revealed without skipping a beat. “It’s not too much further to my mate’s now.”

            “Zayn, eh?” Niall muttered to himself, seeing how the unusual name tasted. “I’m not sure how much more I can get on, if I’m being honest.”

            “You did get a good leathering,” Zayn admitted in a muted voice. It was like it pained him to acknowledge what had just happened to Niall. But, then again, Niall did just get his dial busted.

            The two walked in silence, well one walked and one sort of limped along, until they finally came to the row of gaffs containing Zayn’s mates. The two walked up the walk side by side, but Niall hesitated when it came to the set of stairs. He wasn’t really expecting them, and the way he was feeling they might as well have been Mt. Everest. Zayn noticed that Niall had stopped and the injured lad gave an apologetic look.

            “Hold still,” Zayn said, much to Niall’s confusion. And before he knew what was going on he was up and cradled gently against Zayn’s well-muscled chest, and it hurt a bit, but it didn’t really matter because all he knew was he wasn’t on the ground anymore and he didn’t have to climb Mt. Everest.

            Zayn carried the smaller Irishmen up the stairs and let the two of them in with the spare key that was kept in the mail slot beside the door. There scattered about the living room were three lads that Niall had never seen before. He just kept staring for a moment trying to figure out how they were all mates; they didn’t seem to have a bit in common, with each other or Zayn. Except for the overwhelming amount of tattoos they all had. That was it then, they were in some sort of tattoo gang, Niall decided looking down at his own pale, flawless flesh, he did not fit in.

            The lads carried on as if they were oblivious to the new company.

            “Do you reckon any of those Apollo dudes jacked it on the moon?” A petite lad, almost the size of Niall, asked the curly headed lad whose lap he was curled up on.

            “I reckon they would if they were anything like you,” the curly headed one chortled, earning a snort from the one with a backwards cap.

            “If you’re done arsing about, I could use your assistance, Lou,” Zayn ordered walking further into the living room with Niall lent against him feeling as if he were going in and out of consciousness.

      Niall did not get a chance to learn the rest of the lad’s names besides Lou’s before he lapsed into unconsciousness.

           --

            Niall’s head felt all swimmy and he blinked his big blue eyes open because he felt something warm under him and something pinching at his skin worse than any bee sting he had ever sustained. “Aww naw, what’s going on?” Niall wondered aloud, closing his eyes again to let them adjust.

            Without warning, Niall’s head was tilted to the side by someone else and his lips were attacked by a pair of soft pink one’s. Normally, Niall would freak out if someone snogged him out of nowhere, but this was sort of nice and it helped his still cloudy mind ignore the pain he was feeling, plus he just felt so lonely since the party.

            Niall moved his lips in sync with the ones against him, and tangled his fingers in what he thought was sheets. And then as sudden as the kiss happened it was over and Niall was left feeling so gobsmacked he decided to open one of his eyes.

            “Christ! I was so worried something serious was wrong! Lou, told me you were fine, those a** clowns had just worn you down, or that you might have a slight concussion, but I reckon I just always get to thinking the worst of things.”

            It took Niall a moment to realize that the voice was coming from above him, and that it belonged to the transfer student, Zayn, the one who saved him from Joshua and his goons. “I’m fine, but something stinging the bloody h*** outta me and to be honest it’s rather painful.”

            Niall barely had time to take in Zayn’s laugh before the one he only knew as Lou started shooting off apologies. “That would be me! I’m so sorry! I thought I could stitch you up right quick while you were still out and you’d be none the wiser! I am so very sorry that you are feeling so much discomfort.”

            “Stiches, why in the h*** do I need those for?” Niall wondered.

            Zayn rubbed small circles on Niall’s forehead, which made him relax slightly, and shifted his weight under Niall, and it was only then did he realize he was lying in Zayn’s lap.

            “You have a particularly bad gash from being kicked,” Zayn explained, tracing his fingers delicately over Niall’s features.

            Niall frowned; he had never gotten a belting quite like that before. It was certainly embarrassing to have Zayn know. But he couldn’t seem to remember to be that upset with the other lad’s fingers trailing so gently over his face, he felt more safe than anything else.

            “Harry, be a dear and get me some painkillers,” Lou asked the tall curly haired boy, whose lap he had been curled up in early.

            The one called Harry dashed off to do as Lou asked him, and Niall noted that he still did not know the other brown eyed lad’s name. But he didn’t dwell on that for too long because another thought entered his head. “How’s my nose?”

            Zayn frowned. “Lou says it’s broken, and the only thing he can do for it is put this numbing cream on it. And there’s a chance it’ll be crooked.”

            Niall’s eyes involuntarily moved over to the lad working over his torso and saw on his face that it was the truth. He already had to live with the possibility of a scar on his side, and he quite liked his nose just the way it was; now he had to live with a crooked nose too.